Igor Ivanov, the secretary of Russia's security council, and Li Zhaoxing, China's foreign minister discussed practical steps towards strengthening Russian-Chinese strategic partnership and expanding bilateral interaction in the international arena in the Kremlin. They discussed different aspects of international relations, said the security council's press service.

The sides noted that Russia and China are interested in the maintenance of stability on the Eurasian space, including Central Asian.

In the opinion of Mr. Ivanov, positive trends could be promoted by more specific cooperation between countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) and China in the struggle against international terrorism and drug trafficking, as well as in frontier, visa and immigration policy.

At the meeting, Russia stressed that long-term strategic partnership and interaction with China are among its main foreign policy priorities.

Meanwhile, Sergei Ivanov, Russia's defense minister who is now on a visit to China, met with Wen Jiabao, the prime minister of China, and gave him an invitation from Mikhail Fradkov, Russia's prime minister, to visit Russia.

"This year our contacts and working meetings calendar is very packed," the Russian defense minister said. He added that the Chinese foreign minister is now on a visit to Russia and that he is in China.

In turn, Mr. Wen said that Mr. Ivanov's visit was "at a very important moment." The Chinese prime minister stressed that the Russian defense minister has had very productive talks with Jiang Zemin, the chairman of the Central Military Commission.

"Your visit will not only promote the development of relations between our armed forces but also between our countries," Mr. Wen said.